On Friday, at the invitation of the AAP and Google I moderated a panel discussion with John Sargent from Macmillan and Richard Sarnoff from Bertelsmann that had the modest and focused goal of illuminating for publishers some of the basics of the proposed settlement of the Google Book Search lawsuits. The session was strictly limited to publishers only, which was apparently just the stimulus to make a number of people (mostly press) want to attend, only to get turned away at the door. Sargent’s opening statement addressed head-on the question of what will happen if the settlement is not approved […]
Archives for May 2009
Crushed But Not Fermented: Online Web Guru Shares Tips for Booksellers
After hearing the big build-up for WineLibrary TV founder Gary Vaynerchuk I have to admit I found his Saturday BEA panel underwhelming–more beaujolais nouveau than aged vintage wine if you will. Vaynerchuk may be the first Web 2.0 motivational speaker, and as he let us know repeatedly, his simple but enthusiastic message is apparently in demand from a variety of companies. (I’ve never heard the expression “have the chops” repeated so many times.) And at least some booksellers in the audience at his BEA panel certainly seemed to be nodding along with his advice. Tailored as an independent wine dealer […]
Four Veterans, Two New Ventures
In a voyage abundant in metaphors (and blessed with sunshine) publishing veterans John Oakes and Colin Robinson literally launched their new venture OR Books on a old fireboat from a pier eight blocks south of the Javits center on Sunday afternoon. The boat chugged leisurely around the south end of Manhattan, past the Statue of Liberty and right past the giant Queen Mary 2 in Red Hook. From a megaphone on the top deck they hailed their “politically progressive and culturally adventurous” content paired with a “revolutionary approach to business.” In other words, they aim to sell non-returnable only and […]
Don't Let That Fool You, It Really Is BEA
Apologies in advance for the slightly self-serving nature of this Day Two Dispatch from BEA. It did come to a close for me, after all, with the end of the joint interview I conducted with James Ellroy and Colin Harrison at the Uptown Stage. If you want to know how it went, better ask somebody else – live interviews put me in a fugue state that I can’t shake off completely for a few hours after it’s over. But I can say the mental gymnastics of the role of interviewer turned around what was something of a frustrating day, this […]
ABA Annual Meeting
Outgoing ABA president Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore convened this year’s annual meeting by saying “I probably don’t have to tell you that this has not been a easy year. It’s been a tough one for everyone in this association and we have done what we can to adjust.” And she underscored that both the organization and its members “have no intention of giving up the good fight, maintaining our market, and our place in the community’s heart.” In reviewing the year’s activity, Shanks discussed the search for a new ceo to replace Avin Domnitz and noted “we interiew […]
It Looks Like BEA
If you didn’t know that it was supposed to be a smaller show, with fewer attendees and fewer giveaways I think you wouldn’t notice any difference (except for the size of what’s left of the Random House booth). It’s always hard to know when to push out the e-mail during the show. The following stories simply appear according to the order in which they were posted. As promised, we’ll have more at PublishersMarketplace during the day and over the weekend, though we may or may not mail again until Monday (true to our motto). Despite some unexpected technical trouble, we […]